Ἀγριᾶνες

Notes

1. Same entry, according to Adler, in the Ambrosian Lexicon.
   The Paeonian Agrianes inhabited the headwaters of the R. Strymon, in present-day Bulgaria (Herodotus, Strabo, et al.; Barrington Atlas map 49 grid E1). The present gloss, however, highlights their military role: they were a small but nevertheless important light-infantry unit in the armies of Alexander and his successors; present at, for instance, the battles of Raphia and Kynoskephalai↗. See Arrian, Anabasis 1.5 and passim; also Diodorus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Polybius and Livy. Although originally from the Agriania, the term may have denoted a troop-type in the armies of Antiochos III and Philip V.
   'Taxis' is a term that could denote various sizes of unit. (In Alexander's invading army of 334 the Agrianes were perhaps 500 strong; see Diodorus 17.17.4, where they and the 'archers' together number 1000. Further discussion in Bosworth [below] 263-264.)